Saturday, February 7, 2009

What to do when you're sick of drinking protein shakes all day

By Jon Cardozo

It can be difficult at times to stick to your muscle building routine. One of the classic examples of this can be found in your kitchen. Protein shakes can become pretty old after a while. Your taste buds are probably asking for some new excitement in their lives!

Of course, you can add a little zest to your protein shakes by including some other ingredients like nuts, fruits, or peanut butter. If you're careful about not overdoing the sugar, you can even add some chocolate or other kind of flavoring. There's also another option, though, that you may have not considered. How about getting rid of your protein shakes all together!

Most of your meals should be coming from whole foods anyway. You need to get plenty of fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients which are often not available in your everyday protein powders. Even if they are, it just isn't the same, is it? Remember why protein shake supplements were created.

It is true that protein shakes make it easier to get what we need. If you're serious about muscle building, you have to eat a lot of food, and this can be a real challenge if you don't spend all day in the kitchen. That's why protein drinks are so helpful, because it isn't always convenient to prepare a nice steak dinner or even a tuna sandwich.

Still, it's unhealthy to drink nothing but protein shakes all day. Furthermore, it's not really necessary to drink any protein drinks, otherwise known as liquid meals, at all. It is possible, though it may be difficult, to get all of you required protein and calories from your meals.

In my article "The funny pitfall of protein shakes and weight gain," I told the story of my friend who tried to gain weight with protein shakes alone. In all his excitement, my friend failed to add a tiny, minuscule, trivial little ingredient - resistance exercise.

That's right, simply adding protein and overall calories to your diet, even if it's a lot of protein and calories, will not build muscle if you don't combine this with weight training. Your body doesn't particularly like to grow muscle because it's difficult to maintain so you have to give your body a reason to build muscle.

These are the basic principles of bodybuilding and muscle building which you must master. Weightlifting supplements, including protein shakes, are no substitute for a solid weight training program and muscle building diet plan. - 16004

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